Nursing experts suggest that social support is poorly defined and requires further delineation to insure its effective use in research and practice. The research question for this qualitative study was: what is the nature of telephone social support as it was delivered to low-income pregnant women in an effort to diminish stress and reduce smoking? Twenty-one low-income women who: (a) were recruited from Women, Infants, and Children Nutritional Supplement Clinics in central Missouri, (b) smoked at least 1 cigarette per day, and (c) were less than 16 weeks gestation took part in this study. Trained nurses delivered telephone social support once per week and kept detailed logs of their interactions. These logs served as the database for this investigation and were analyzed using qualitative methods. Each log entry was initially analyzed line-by-line, and metaphorical or in vivo codes were attached to text units. The coded units were then organized based on broader metaphorical subcategories, and several saturated categories emerged. As delivered within the context of this study, social support appears to parallel conceptualizations of nursing presence. Components of social support include: (a) maintenance of psychological presence, interpersonal reciprocity characterized by a mutual desire to work together, (c) therapeutic communication and full attention to the here and now, and (d) expert nursing practice within the nurse-patient dyad. Social support resulted in problem solving, adaptive behavior change, and diminished distress. The findings suggest that social support is a socially-constructed phenomenon, which calls for flexible conceptualizations of the construct. A challenge for research nurses in the future will be to carefully articulate how social support is actually delivered within the parameters of their study protocols so that greater clarity can be achieved in regard to nursing implications.

Full metadata record

Telephone Social Support or Nursing Presence? Analysis of a Nursing Intervention

en_GB

dc.identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10755/159464

-

dc.description.abstract

<table><tr><td colspan="2" class="item-title">Telephone Social Support or Nursing Presence? Analysis of a Nursing Intervention </td></tr><tr class="item-sponsor"><td class="label">Conference Sponsor:</td><td class="value">Midwest Nursing Research Society</td></tr><tr class="item-year"><td class="label">Conference Year:</td><td class="value">2004</td></tr><tr class="item-author"><td class="label">Author:</td><td class="value">Finfgeld, Deborah, PhD, APRN, BC</td></tr><tr class="item-author-title"><td class="label">Title:</td><td class="value">Associate Professor</td></tr><tr class="item-address"><td class="label">Contact Address:</td><td class="value">Sinclair SON, 1304 Vintage Drive, Columbia, MO, 65203, USA</td></tr><tr class="item-co-authors"><td class="label">Co-Authors:</td><td class="value">Linda F. C. Bullock, PhD, RN, Associate Professor; Elizabeth Geden, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN, Professor Emeritus; Mandy Manderino, PhD, RN, Associate Professor Emeritus </td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="item-abstract">Nursing experts suggest that social support is poorly defined and requires further delineation to insure its effective use in research and practice. The research question for this qualitative study was: what is the nature of telephone social support as it was delivered to low-income pregnant women in an effort to diminish stress and reduce smoking? Twenty-one low-income women who: (a) were recruited from Women, Infants, and Children Nutritional Supplement Clinics in central Missouri, (b) smoked at least 1 cigarette per day, and (c) were less than 16 weeks gestation took part in this study. Trained nurses delivered telephone social support once per week and kept detailed logs of their interactions. These logs served as the database for this investigation and were analyzed using qualitative methods. Each log entry was initially analyzed line-by-line, and metaphorical or in vivo codes were attached to text units. The coded units were then organized based on broader metaphorical subcategories, and several saturated categories emerged. As delivered within the context of this study, social support appears to parallel conceptualizations of nursing presence. Components of social support include: (a) maintenance of psychological presence, interpersonal reciprocity characterized by a mutual desire to work together, (c) therapeutic communication and full attention to the here and now, and (d) expert nursing practice within the nurse-patient dyad. Social support resulted in problem solving, adaptive behavior change, and diminished distress. The findings suggest that social support is a socially-constructed phenomenon, which calls for flexible conceptualizations of the construct. A challenge for research nurses in the future will be to carefully articulate how social support is actually delivered within the parameters of their study protocols so that greater clarity can be achieved in regard to nursing implications.</td></tr></table>

en_GB

dc.date.available

2011-10-26T22:02:27Z

-

dc.date.issued

2011-10-17

en_GB

dc.date.accessioned

2011-10-26T22:02:27Z

-

dc.description.sponsorship

Midwest Nursing Research Society

en_GB

All Items in this repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.